For 50 years, Sandestin has welcomed guests to experience world-class golf, sugar-white beaches, dining, shopping, entertainment, hospitality, and more. Since its opening in 2021, Hotel Effie has made a name for itself as Sandestin’s signature, luxury hotel. Ready to elevate the guest experience, father-daughter ownership team, Tom and Sara Becnel, saw Marriott’s Autograph Collection as the perfect partnership to help Hotel Effie reach new heights.

With our deep understanding of the Autograph Collection brand, target guest, and expectations, we spent time at Hotel Effie, at Sandestin, and in the surrounding beach towns to experience the destination through the target guest perspective to identify opportunities for the hotel to embody exactly like nothing else while leveraging the brand equity they already built.

We quickly realized that the magic of Sandestin and Hotel Effie was found in the destination’s family-ties and story of Effie, and that what made Hotel Effie unique from other Emerald Coast hotel options was its bayside location. This combination of legacy and sanctuary was our nexus of opportunity.

The surrounding natural environment embodies a legacy of beauty and of balance. Quartz, the stone responsible for the iconic coloration of the Emerald Coast beaches, brings an energy of harmony. The view from atop Hotel Effie beholds both sugar-white sands and open ocean and the calming estuary and boats of the bay. This duality is mirrored throughout the design of the hotel with details that highlight both bayside and oceanfront with subtlety and grace, weaving the heritage of North Florida throughout the built environment.

Sandestin itself has a generational heritage of intentional time spent together. The hotel celebrates the symmetry of togetherness and individuality through spaces configured for connection, programming that embraces the boundless possibilities within Sandestin, and moments for solitude and reflection woven throughout the journey.

The emphasis on traditions and gathering honor the role of family in Sandestin’s history, and the special place it holds in the hearts of hotel ownership, staff, guests, and generations of visitors. The hotel is named after owner Tom Becnel’s grandmother, Effie Burns, who was known for her Southern hospitality and home-cooked meals . Her legacy lives on through the service ethos, names of the outlets, small touches in design, and role of food in the hotel experience. Everything about Hotel Effie is meant to bring the legacies of this destination into balance, allowing guests to experience them in harmony.